Stadler Rail

Stadler Rail is a rolling stock (rail vehicle) manufacturing company with an international presence based out of Bussnang, Switzerland. Stadler has locations in Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Belarus, Algeria, Australia and the United States.The company has over forty service locations and over 10,000 employees. Stadler Rail manufactures high-speed trains, intercity trains, regional and commuter heavy rail trains, underground trains, tram trains, trams, main-line locomotives, shunting locomotives, and passenger carriages. Stadler is also a manufacturer and innovator of electric and diesel electric rail vehicles. The current CEO and owner of Stadler Rail is Swiss politician Peter Spuhler.

Stadler Rail was founded in 1942 by Ernst Stadler in Zurich, Switzerland. As early as 1945, Stadler began producing diesel and battery powered locomotives. In 1976, Stadler became the public limited company Stadler Fahrzeuge AG. The company began producing passenger trains in 1984; custom manufacturing for private railways is still a core part of their business.

The company was purchased by Peter Spuhler in 1989 for 5,483,530 USD. That same year the company developed the first modular rail car. In the following decades, the company expanded, establishing Stadler PankowGmbH and Stadler Altenerhien. The company began producing the FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train), an electrical multiple unit train, for the SBB (Swiss Federal Railway) in 2004. Stadler has continued to develop FLIRT technology and fill FLIRT orders for many countries including Hungary, Norway, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and Algeria. Stadler continued its expansion founding Standler Winterthur (2005), Stadler Trains Magyarország kft (2005), Stadler Polska(2006), Stadler Algeria (2008)and Stadler Praha (2009).

The SBB ordered the first KISS, electric, double-decker, and multi unit trains from Stadler Rail in August of 2008.Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Australia were added to the list of Stadler locations by 2015. In 2016, Stadler presented Giruno (high speed, electric, multi-unit train) at Innotrans Fair in Berlin.In 2019, Stadler signed a contract Bernardino County Transportation Authority to supply the first hydrogen-powered passenger train to operate in the United States; it is projected to be running by 2024.Stadler was awarded the largest tender in Swiss rail history in 2020 from the Swiss Federal Railways, in association with Thurbo and RegionAlps, in a framework agreement for up to 510 new single-decker FLIRT multiple units.